ABSTAINERS PUT CAREER FIRST

Abstainers and absentees: Duffield, Allin-Khan and Johnson

Only one Labour MP voted against his government's winter fuel cut on Tuesday.  It remains to be seen whether Jon Trickett will have the whip removed, but that was the threat facing him and his colleagues ahead of the vote.  348 Labour MPs supported the government, while 52 abstained or were absent.

There was fierce criticism online for both those backing the cut as well as those who abstained.  The words 'SHAME ON YOU', 'cowardly' and 'gutless' all trended on X following the vote.  Canterbury's Rosie Duffield was one of those singled out after she admitted in an interview that maintaining the Labour whip was more important than voting against the fuel cut.  She abstained.  The clip can be seen below.

Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) was another MP who faced criticism after she excused herself from the vote for 'pre-arranged dental surgery'.  If she was so concerned for the lives of pensioners this winter, she would surely have postponed or rearranged her dentistry...

Rosena Allin-Khan (Tooting) was another who excused herself for medical reasons.  Dr Allin-Khan rose to fame during the scamdemic by returning to hospital work to help out in her role as a medical doctor.  The overwhelming majority of those who died from coronavirus were elderly (the average age of coronavirus death was 81), but Allin-Khan was not prepared to support them on this occasion.  She blamed an accident 'this week' that requires surgery.  With the vote taking place on Tuesday, she could only have fallen in the previous 48 hours.  The timing is questionable at best and 46 is not an age prone to hospital-worthy slips and trips...

Dawn Butler (Brent East) was also rinsed by X users for posting a video about mental health and not referring to the winter fuel cut at all.  She did not vote.

Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford) was one of seven Labour MPs suspended by Starmer after having voted against the government over the child benefit cap.  However, unlike five of the others currently suspended, she abstained on Tuesday.  She posted a lengthy and evasive statement on social media that was signed off 'Rebecca Long-Bailey - Putting Salford First'.  It appears that the former leadership contender is more concerned with having the whip restored than putting her elderly constituents first.

Ian Lavery (Blyth & Ashington) posted a statement saying he had 'never voted to make his constituents poorer'.  He then went and abstained.  He also seems to have forgotten how he voted during the scamdemic, when he repeatedly voted for Covid legislation that made every single one of us poorer!

The general consensus is that the 52 Labour MPs who abstained or were absent are just as culpable for pensioners' deaths this winter as the 348 who backed the government.  While it is true to say that 52 votes would not have swung the outcome - such is Labour's huge majority - it would have provided a damaging blow to Keir Starmer and perhaps given red voters some hope that not all Labour MPs are career politicians.  Instead, by not having the moral compass or courage to defy Keir Starmer, they have shown everybody that their place on the gravy train is more important than the lives of their elderly constituents.